Track Listing

1. Mighty Storm
2. Fast Paced World
3. This Fall
4. Adam's 3-step
5. Toujours Vouloir
6. You Don't See It
7. Ship High In Transit
8. Magalenha
9. Sleepin' Is All I Wanna Do (Stars On A Sunny Day)
10. 95 South
11. New Rigged Ship
12. I See You

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #21031 in Music
• Released on: 2008-08-19
• Number of discs: 1

Album Description
Hailed by The New York Times as one of the artists at the forefront of the neo-folk movement, The Duhks continue the evolution with their fourth album.

About the Artist
Hailed by The New York Times as one of the artists at the forefront of the neo-folk movement, the Duhks continue the evolution with their fourth album, FAST PACED WORLD. "We traveled from Winnipeg, locked ourselves in a Nashville basement, pooled our ideas together and invented a new sound," says new frontwoman and bilingual, budding soul queen, Sarah Dugas (she replaced Jessee Havey in 2007). The Duhks are: Sarah Dugas (lead vocals), Jordan McConnell (guitars), Leonard Podolak (banjos, lead vocals on track 10), Tania Elizabeth (fiddles/strings), Christian Dugas (drums/percussion).

Customer Reviews

ODD DUHK - GOOD DUHK!!
I feel inadequate to review this album - I have a hearing loss which prevents me from noticing nuance, but the music is so exceptional I can hear between the lines. The Duhks are an eclectic mix of traditional and modern styles. "Mighty Storm" a traditional song is infused with modern instruments and yet maintains an old time sensibility. It is iconic of the band leading you into an old folk song in ways you have not considered.

Sarah Dugas, the lead singer, ably replaces Jessee Havey the former lead singer, bringing her distinctive voice to the album. Ms Dugas, maintains a distinctive style but you hear echoes of Macy Grey in "this fall" and Alicia Keys/Billy Holiday in "sleepin' is all i wanna do". Leonard Podolak , the founder, provides the only non-Dugas lead vocal in "95 South" a rollicking blue grass infused song. Jordan McConnell, as usual, provides exquisite guitar support. Tania Elizabeth sustains the superb string support to the project and co-wrote the haunting, jazz infused "i see you". Christian Dugas, replacing the remarkable Scott Senior, blends seamlessly into the mix. Traditional arrangements presented are along with band written ones and a French song by Sarah Dugas.

The Duhks are not a genre based band. They incorporate what ever fits into their sound and they cannot be defined by any label. Give a listen and buy.

What Happened?
I want to start this by saying that the Duhks used to be one of my favorite groups. Used to because of their recent effort. Their live shows on the other hand are still very exciting and I would rate those five stars.

On the other hand I have followed the duhks for a long time, and they didn't put out anything bad until this.

There was something magical about each one of their previous albums. All of them encompassing old-time string band and roots music in some sense. This kept everything very organic sounding yet new and it truly was beautiful. Having a band with Scott Senor's style of drums and the prevalence of clawhammer banjo and amazing fiddle playing was amazing. All I hear on this album is compression, drums, simple rhythms, mediocre song writing and monotonous sounding music. The Duhks old albums are all still in heavy rotation for me and this one quickly came and went.

You know it's not going well when your side project (Turtleduhks) make better albums than your current project (fast paced world). I want the old duhks back, and i don't mean jessee havey by that, I mean that I want the originality that brought songs like Ruth Ungar's four blue walls and beautiful complex songs in 5/4 rhythm like Fox and The Bee. They are still incredible musicians and are capable of things that almost no other band is. I think Leonard Podolak needs to remember why he made the group in the first place and go back to that, because that is why I loved the Duhks, because they were making music that didn't have a standard drum kit compressed emo-sounding lyrics vibe.

The Duhks - Fast Paced World
Fast Paced World (2008, Wel) The Duhks' fourth studio album. ***

I'm not sure how the Duhks attained the label of "progressive bluegrass," but I think that is hardly what I would call it. In fact, to even attempt to define their genre is difficult, and in their case it's not necessarily a compliment. Fast Paced World often finds the band trying to do too much, ranging from their original bluegrass roots to world, blues, and straightforward jam. To add on top of that, lead singer Sarah Dugas hardly fits the band's approach. Dugas is a jazz singer, plain and simple, and her husky Feist/Winehouse sounding vocals don't suit what the band should be attempting. Now, her voice is very rich and is excellent, and it works great on African pieces like "Magalenha" or the thunderous opener, "Mighty Storm." The problem? A cover of something like "Magalenha" doesn't belong here.

None of the material is bad or poorly performed, but because none of it adds together in any logical sense, you're left wondering what the band was thinking when they went into the studio. It's not unreasonable to entertain the thought that a computer came up with the track sequencing, as random order would work nearly as well as the arrangement they have here. While Fast Paced World may sound good, it's ultimately an aimlessly meandering album, attempting to bring an established sound (which isn't established) to a wide array of genres.